Christmas

Hi, I'm going to speak about Christmas traditions in some parts of the world. Almost all the countries have their own christmas traditions, but I will try to compare christmas traditions in the Basque country and in China.

In the Basque Country, they decorate streets and trees with ligths  in most towns and cities. Olentzero is king on Christmas eve, not Santa Claus. The olentzero, brings the presents to the Basque children but in order to get presents you have to be a good child. If you are not, the olentzero will bring you coal. The olentzero will leave the presents you asked for in the shoe that you put near the christmas tree. Olentzero is a old miner man who spends his free time making toys for the chlidren. 



The olentzero legend says that one day while a house was burning olentzero saw it and, very bravely, tried to  rescue the kids that were inside. During the rescue olentzero lost his life but he recued all the children that were inside the burning house.
Another Basque tradition is for the chlidren to go from house to house singing carols in exchange  for money or food on the 24th of December. Also, on the 24th, people gather to  welcome  the Olentzero. In Tolosa the olentzero comes from the mountain but in other places, it comes from the sea or the river. They  welcome olentzero on the 24th. In that welcome, the olentzero speaks with the children and they tell the olentzero what they want for Christmas. On Christmas Eve  in most cases,  families get together to have dinner in the evening. On the 25th all the children open their presents and  go to the street to play with them. Some Basque children also believe in the Three Magi as the characters that bring them presents during the holidays.

But, what about a Country like China?

Not everybody celebrates Christmas in China. China is a Communist country and because of that religious festivities are not celebrated. The people that do celebrate Christmas celebrate it by lighting their houses with beautiful paper lanterns and decorating their Christmas trees,which they call them "Trees of Light." Chinese children, hang muslim stokings in the chimney or in the trees hopping that Santa Claus will bring them presents. They call Santa: Dun Che Lao Ren (dwyn-chuh-lau-oh-run) which means "Christmas Old Man."  But, as I said
 before, most  Chinese people are not Christian. That is the reason why  the most important festivity is the Chinese new year that takes place  the end of January. Nowadays, it is called "Spring Festival". During this festivity  the children receive new clothes, eat luxurious meals and  receive new toys.





Have a happy new year! And enjoy your holidays the best that you can!
See you soon!

THE MOST IMPORTANT INVENTIONS.

From my point of view, the two most important inventions are:
The invention of the ipod and the invention Internet.
To start my article, I’m going to speak about the ipod.
The ipod was invented the 23 October in 2001 ipod is a brand of portable media players designed by Apple. There are 4 different type of ipod:

The ipod shuffle, the ipod nano, the ipod cassic and the ipod touch.

To start, I’m going to explain the ipod shuffle;
The ipod shuffle, is the smallest ipod. It is very easy to manage because all that you have to do is to click on the auricular were there is to pass the song or to stop it. It didn't have a screen but that is not a problem because with the new technique that with a voice, the ipod told you what song you are listening to and who interprets. He spoke you in 20 different languages. The capacity you have two options, 2 gb or 4gb.

 Continuing, I’m going to explain the ipod nano.  There are two models. There are in different colour and with a capacity of 8 gb and 16 gb.  Recently apple did ipod nano with a camera. In my opinion, the camera is not necessary. The ipod is for listen music and nothing else. In this model there are 5 generations. The generations are when the ipod change de size, the scream or some program.

   Now, I’m going to speak about the ipod classic. In my opinion, is the best ipod that exsist. It has a capacity of 160 gb more than some computers, that's incredible. Regarding the colours, it has the same of the other ipod.  The scream, isn't very small. There are 6 generation in this ipod 1 more than in the nano. This ipod can read document’s like a PC. Resuming, I’m will say that this ipod is like a PC is worse than it but is fantastic.

 To finish with the ipod, I’ going to explain the only ipod that is tactile. You can connect to internet with WI-FI. The capacity of this ipod is of 32gb or 64gb. Also, the ipod touch of the 2nd generation has 8gb. This is the only ipod that has a speaker. You have different application in this ipod like calculator, weather, mail...and also, you can download applications from internet.









The second invention that I'm going to explain is the television (TV). The TV is a widely used for transmit and receive moving images.  The first TV was invented a little bit before the invention of the telephone in 1878 more o less. Before, the images were seen in black and white, but nowadays, with all the technology that we have, we can watch that images in colour and in high quality. Nowadays we have one or two TV's in per house but before, only the rich ones can have a TV in their houses. In 70's people start using video cassettes, later they used the DVD and nowadays we use the blue ray. Comparing with the TV's that we have before, the TV of nowadays, are tremendous but what TV's we are going to have in the future?

My friend U.B. is 15 years old. He likes listening to music and his favourite group is In the kitchen (Basque group). He listening to music every day, more than one time per day. But he desen´t play any musical instrument. If he had to play an instrument he would play the bass because he likes it.


Concerning sports, his favourite sport is the football but he also likes other sports like pelota, basketball and handball. He is in the team of Tolosa football team. His favourite football player is Ronaldo and his favourite football team is Real Sociedad.

He studies in Laskorain Ikastola, his favourite subject is P.E. He desen´t like to study but when he studies he gets goods marks. He doesen’t repeat any course. He goes to mathematics reinforcing classes to pass mathematics.


He likes the winter more than the summer because he hates the sun. But he prefers going to the beach to going to the mountain. He likes the mountain but if he has to choose one he will choose the beach. When he goes to the beach he prefers to go with his friends than with his family. He has one brother older than him. There are 4 members in his family.


He likes the technology and to watch the TV. In the TV his favourite TV show is Vaya semanita.


He also likes to go out with his friends in the afternoos and at night.


He prefers to eat meat than fish and his favourite meet is txuleta.

  

I hope you like the article about my friend!
see you!

Heavy metal instruments.

Hi!
Do you know the instruments that make up a heavy metal group?
If you don't know, it doesn´t matter because I’m going to explain to you a big part of the instruments that are in a heavy metal group. As you know I'm a  fan of heavy metal; because of that I'm going to explain what the instruments are like.

In a normal heavy metal group the instruments are: the electric guitar (in most of the cases there are 2), the electric bass and a drum kit. Then, you can add some more instruments like a DJ, (in the case of Slipknot.) or a keyboard like in Nightwish and other bands. Let's start with the instruments:

What is the most important instrument in a group?
People say that the guitar is the most important instrument in a heavy metal group and others say that is the drum kit. In my opinion, that most important instrument is the drum kit, because  you can replace the guitar with a keyboard. That’s my opinion...

The electric guitar:

The electric guitar is an instrument that has 6 steel-coder strings but some metal guitar players use a guitar of 7 strings. The guitar is connected to an amplifier to listen the vibration of the strings. The signal that comes from the guitar is sometimes electronically altered with guitar effects. If you don't know how an electric guitar looks, look at this picture:



 1. hedstock: 1.1 machine heads; 1.2 truss rod cover; 1.3 string guide; 1.4 nut
2. Neck: 2.1 fretboard; 2.2 inlay fret markers; 2.3 frets; 2.4 neck joint.
3. Body; 3.1 "neck" pickup; 3.2 "bridge" pickup; 3.3 saddles; 3.4 bridge; 3.5 fine tuners; 3.6 tremolo arm; 3.7 pickup selector switch; 3.8 volume and tone control knobs; 3.9 output connector; 3.10 strap buttons.
4.strings:  4.1 bass strings 4.2 treble strings.





I played the guitar for some months and personally I liked the sound but I don't like to play it.

Concerning the bass:

The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar but with a longer body, longer neck, the bass usually has 4 strings but there are of 8, 10, 12 and 15 string basses. The pitches of the bass are one octave lower than the strings of the guitar.

Another design consideration for the bass is whether to use frets on the fingerboard.  On fretted basses, the frets divide the fingerboard into a semitone. I play the bass and from my point of view, the sound of the guitar is more beautiful than the bass but the way that I play the bass I like it more . People say that to play the bass is quite easy and I don't agree with them. To learn how to play the bass is easy but to play it is not so easy. It's true that to play the bass is easier than to play the guitar but I don't agree when they say that it's very easy.




 

Regarding the drum kit: 

The drum kit also called drum set is a collection of drums, cynbals and some other percussion instrument’s such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes or tambourines arranged like the drummer wants.From my view point, the best dummer is Joey Jordison who is the drummer of  Slipknot. Here is Joey in action:
 
 If you like it write a comment!

That's all. I hope that you like it. see you soon!

Hi to all the readers of laskenglish to Aitor Olazabal's blog.

Hi, my name is Aitor Olazabal.
I have just learnt to do a blog in ICT class. We have only done 3 classes and in those 3 clases we have done a test to know how much we know about computer's, also we have done a gmail account. In the gmail account, we have seen how to change the configuration of your account and to add your friend's to a group that you want. For this work we spend 2 sessions .
In the 3rd class we have made our blog. This blog is our notebook for ICT lessons. I'll go updating this blog.

Bye.